Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 121:1

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: From whence shall my help come?" — Psalms 121:1 (ASV)

Whence. — Our version is certainly incorrect in following the Septuagint and Vulgate in making whence a relative. The Hebrew word is always interrogative; even in Joshua 2:4 it is indirectly interrogative. But the margin is hardly right in making the whole verse interrogative. Render: I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? The hills are those on which Jerusalem is built, the plural being understood, as in Psalm 87:1. (See Note.) This gaze of hope does not absolutely decide the standpoint of the poet.

He might have been like Ezekiel (Ezekiel 6:2) when commanded to turn towards the mountains of Israel in the distant plain of Mesopotamia; or he may have been near the end of the pilgrim journey, and actually under the sacred hills. But wherever he stands, this question is not one of doubt; he knows, as in Psalm 3:4 and Psalm 14:7, that help will come from God’s holy hill, out of Zion. He poses the question for the sake of the emphatic answer in the next verse.

Possibly, as suggested by the marginal rendering and reference, the poet may in his mind have been contrasting the confidence with which a worshipper of Jehovah might look up to the sacred city on the crest of the holy hill with the superstition and idolatry associated with so many hills and high places in Canaan.

If this is so, the best commentary on both the poetry and the religion of the psalm is found in Mr. Ruskin’s fascinating discourses on mountains in “Modern Painters.” These discourses explore their influence on the ancient, medieval, and modern mind, and the part they have played alike in the mythology of pagan times and the religion of the Christian world.

Furthermore, considering the Jewish perspective, one must also add the role their mountains played as a defensive barrier (Psalms 125:2), and as vantage points from which to watch for messengers of peace (Isaiah 52:7; Nahum 1:15).

“In the mountains did he feel his faith
.... and there his spirit shaped
Her prospects.”—WORDSWORTH.